Falling Into Petals - Paused
by Kaiimei
Summary: A slash across the throat in a filthy alleyway wasn't how Crystal imagined she would die. And fate, that cruel mistress, seemed to agree, dragging her across space and depositing her in an equally filthy alleyway, with twitching ears appearing atop her head and a tail sticking out behind her. But, she was a survivor, so that was what she'd do, survive, by any means necessary...
1. Chapter 1

**Hush your complainin', I hear ya.**

**I did put a nice shiny warning on my profile telling you all that I'm only gonna be writing on weekends. Or, well...I did that just now, which is probably a day before you guys see this chapter.**

**Now, clarification, I work GMT 3 PM to 11 PM, and I leave my place at 1 PM to catch the bus out there and get back past midnight. Adding in time to eat and sleep, I get maybe 1/2 hours of my own time. So yeah, fun.**

**But hey, at least during weekends I can do my normal writings. What'll probably happen is I write out a little bit of a chapter during the week when I feel like it, and then during the weekend write a chapter for a story on Saturday and Sunday, so 2/3 chapters a week. Considering my average chapter length of like 3k-ish, that's still 6/9k a week, 24/36k a month, you can't complain with that now can ya?**

**...I mean, you can, but who cares, on with the awesomeness! Or chapter, whatever...**

_**Chapter 1 - A Tumble Through Time...and Space**_

* * *

"Go on Crystal, get outta here already!"

The man's voice jeered through the doorframe as the aforementioned woman ducked out the exit, stepping onto the street with a happy sigh, swinging the door shut and waving to the man. As the door closed up, the woman took a moment to look over herself, making sure she had all her things before setting off down the alleyway, hands in her pockets and a small smile on her face.

Crystal Sallow, a typical twenty-something woman, happily employed and educated, living in the big city, a step up from her rural living. Losing her family in a house fire was a major low point for her, but she persevered, not letting the loss drag her down. With a small skip in her step, she walked through the familiar alley, stopping short when she saw a hooded figure sat at the wall of the alley, head atop their knees and arms wrapped around them.

With a sigh, she reached behind herself for her wallet, pulling out a few spare coins and placing them in front of the person, a frown on her face. "Hey." She said softly, watching the person raise their head slightly to peer first at the coins beside them, and then up to her face, though their own was concealed by the darkness of their hood. "Get something to eat, hmm?"

The first warning she got that something was wrong was the feral smirk that she could see form on their lips, and she took a wary step back just in time to avoid the attempted grab of her clothes, frantically back-peddling and stepping on a piece of trash on the floor, falling onto her back with a yelp.

Taking advantage of her momentary immobility, the person darted forwards, grabbing the lapel of her clothes and yanking at her, arm reaching around to attempt a grab at her wallet, which she quickly lashed out at, shoving the arm away and burying an elbow in the stomach of her opponent.

As they doubled over, Crystal kicked away from them, sliding back and wincing when instead of moving away, instead all she succeeded in doing was smashing against a dumpster, stunning her for a moment. As the pair of them got their senses back to them, Crystal saw them snarl, actually snarl, at her, before lunging for her, a hand buried in their pocket, and Crystal ducked under a punch, only to hear the clang of metal on metal.

Looking above her, she saw a knife tip stabbed into the dumpster. That moment of distraction was enough for the attacker to knee her in the side of the head, bringing the knife down and in a fluid motion, slicing straight across the front of her throat.

Blinking a few times, Crystal looked down in shock, seeing blood pouring out from her neck, and looking back up at the figure, whose eyes were wide as they looked at their handiwork. Opening her mouth, Crystal attempted to say something but found she couldn't. Instead of words, only silence came out, and darkness quickly encroached her vision, turning the world to darkness...

* * *

As she walked down the street, a flash from one of the nearby alleys drew her attention, and, with a hand atop her weapon as only befitting a huntress investigating suspicious activity, strode quickly into the alley, eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, before her eyes fell on a bloodied and shivering bundle on the floor. Why she was shivering threw the woman for a loop, as Vacuo wasn't exactly cold.

Walking far faster but still just as cautiously, the woman stepped quickly to the bundle, almost losing her grip on her weapon when she saw a young girl curling in on herself, her hands protectively raised around her neck, blood staining her body, with her ears gently twitching atop her head and a tail softly waggling behind her.

Wait a minute. She did a double-take when she looked between the ears and the tail, and her mind basically stopped as the consensus of all Faunus having one feature was pretty clearly broken here. But, with a shrug, she pushed that thought back in her mind and focused on getting the poor Faunus girl some help.

Kneeling down, the woman slowly laid a hand on the girl, gently rubbing her arm and getting her attention, watching her slowly stop shaking so much and blearily open her silvery eyes to gaze at her, with her hands still wrapped around her neck.

"Hey, are you okay? Oh, who am I kidding, look at you." She remarked, wincing at the sheer sight of the girl. "Okay, we'll need to go to a doctor for this. Can you walk?" She asked quickly, watching the girl nod at her before opening her mouth to speak and closing it again, her hands never leaving her throat, tears balling up in her eyes, which she quickly wiped away. "Hey, you'll be alright. Now...Have you got a name?"

Watching the girl open and close her mouth again, she frowned. Watching her take one hand from her neck to point first at her neck, then her mouth, then opening and closing her mouth and finally shaking her head, the woman, if asked later, would say she understood immediately. Alas, it actually took a few moments before she pieced it together, raising a hand to her mouth. "Wait, you mean...?" She trailed off, cringing when the girl meekly nodded, unsteadily getting to her feet and never taking her hand away from her neck.

With that, the girl looked at her, taking small moments to glance around as if to ensure there were no others in the alley. "Hey, don't worry, I'm a huntress, and I've got this." She rubbed a hand across the handle of her weapon, and immediately panicked when the girl all but threw herself backwards, eyes wide. "Woah woah woah, it's alright, I'm a huntress, I promise." She placated, hands raised non-threateningly and idly wondering where on Remnant the girl came from if she'd never heard of a damn huntress.

After a tense few moments where the girl seriously looked like she wanted to just cut her losses and run for it, she finally nodded once, softly, with a tiny smile on her face, one the huntress returned beamingly. "Come on then, let's get you checked out." She said, turning and making for the end of the alley, hearing the soft footsteps of the girl behind her after a few steps.

Fortunately for the huntress, a clinic she visited a few times for her own bangs and scrapes was only a little ways away, and within a few minutes, and one very startled receptionist, the little girl she'd found was sat on a table, swinging her legs idly with her ears low to her head and tail flopping about slowly, as the doctor scrubbed up, while she was sat in a chair watching, a frown on her face.

The entire time, the girl hadn't said a word, nor had she removed her hand from her neck. Even when she stumbled once on the way to the clinic, she adamantly kept her hand in place, worrying the woman far more than anything else.

"Okay, now what seems to be the problem here?" The doctor asked casually, drawing the girls attention and stepping over to her. "I know it may be uncomfortable or perhaps slightly painful, but I'll need you to take that hand away from your neck, okay honey?" She asked softly, gently touching her head between her ears, and then lowering her hand, slowly tugging the girls grasp from her neck away gently but firmly.

And, as her hand was drawn away from her neck, both the doctor and the huntress gasped at the livid red slice across her throat. "My god..." The doctor remarked idly, leaning closely in to examine the wound. "You found her just now?" She asked over her shoulder, and the huntress nodded quickly.

"Y-yeah...she wasn't very far from here, in an alley with her hands on her neck and curled up. I...I don't think she can talk, she looked like she tried to a few times and couldn't." She remarked, and watched the girl nod frantically at them, opening and closing her mouth.

Rubbing her chin thoughtfully, the doctor frowned. "But it doesn't make much sense why she would have blood on her. The wound has closed somehow, perhaps through trauma-based aura activation, or maybe a semblance of some kind...I'm not sure though." Looking up from the wound, the doctor fixed the girl with a questioning gaze. "When you got...this...did you feel powerful? Like energy in your body bursting out, or that your body was fixing itself somehow?" She asked, frowning when the girl looked up at the light for a second before shaking her head.

"Well, the wound is closed, and despite the blood on you, it looks like it's been closed, either for a while and if not that, then through a semblance or aura. All I can really recommend is that you keep the region clean and watch out for infection. Now, do you have any family in the area we can contact? Any relatives or anything you know the scroll number for?"

Frowning, the young girl shook her head, and the huntress felt her heart drop. Vacuo orphanages were pretty terrible, even by council standards, and apparently it was a bit of a crap-shoot trying to even survive long enough to get out of there, let alone getting adopted by somebody.

But, as much as the woman wanted to just take the girl home with her, she had her own daughters to think about, and of course, her husband would likely not be best pleased if she suddenly brought back another kid to look after.

"I'm afraid we'll have to contact the council and get you set up in an orphanage then." The doctor said with a tone of finality. But, as she made to go and fetch her scroll, a sudden movement from the girl saw her hand snagging the doctors sleeve. And, as she opened her mouth to ask what the girl wanted, she saw her point at her neck, then miming trying to talk, before tapping away at the air.

"Do you...want something to write on? Oh goddamn it, we're both stupid." The doctor said, pointedly ignoring the smirk that appeared on the girls face, as she grabbed her scroll, opening a memo tab and giving it to her, watching her type away with rather impressive speed for such a young girl. After a few moments, she thrust the scroll back into her face.

'Name is Crystal, I don't know scroll numbers, or where am. If you can tell where am, or map, I'd find home fine. Felt no energy, but feel weaker yet stronger than before' The text read, and the doctor read it a few times before frowning. "Well, a map is easy." She quickly tapped across to a map on her scroll, talking all the while. "But I can't just let a young girl like you out into the world, you won't always be so lucky as to run into a huntress when you are vulnerable, next time it might be a hungry Beowolf. I don't know about being weaker yet stronger, usually unlocking aura makes the user feel far stronger than before."

Ignoring that, the huntress smiled at the girl. "So, you're called Crystal?" She asked, and the girl smiled back as she nodded. "That's funny, my own daughter is named after a gem, though it isn't quite the same I guess." She pondered in her head, and Crystal had only a moment to consider it before the doctor gave her the scroll again, pointing at the map, and quickly lunging for it when it slipped from her fingers. After catching it and almost swearing up a storm, the doctor was ready to berate the girl for almost dropping her scroll like that, but at the sight of the girl clutching her head and panicking, instead she bit her tongue and rubbed Crystal's head gently.

Unbeknownst to the two women in the room, Crystal wasn't nursing a sudden headache or something. Taking one look at the map, Crystal put together all the little hints. People walking around with weapons and calling themselves huntresses, and presumably huntsman for the males. Scrolls instead of phones or mobiles. Something weird called aura or semblances letting people heal from slit throats!

The only conclusion she could land on was that she had, in fact, died, and somehow appeared here, in a different universe. At that moment, Crystal considered herself lucky that she didn't have anything major tying her back home, like family, or close friends. It still hurt knowing she would probably never see her home again, and now was stuck living as a seemingly little girl in a world dangerous enough to require people to carry around weapons a lot. But, while it hurt, she was still able to keep herself focused and resolved herself to figure out this new world quickly.

But first, she had to find a way out of being locked away in an orphanage. Even if this world had orphanages which were the epitome of amazingness, she would much rather be free to learn and grow, which she knew most orphanages back home had a bit of a problem with. At least, if popular culture was anything to believe. Even taking it with several grains of salt, Crystal still thought that honestly, she'd do better on her own than stuck in some stuffy orphanage. though, the mention of a Beowolf had her a little worried. Of course, a new universe meant all new threats, and she was nothing if not resourceful.

Looking up after a few more moments of hiding her face, she saw the worried looks the doctor and huntress were giving her, and she gave a shaky smile at them before pointing at the scroll again. After a few moments, the doctor gave it to her, and she began typing out a few things.

Thrusting it back into the doctor's hands again, Crystal waited as she read through what she wrote, swinging her legs about and finally noticing the tail she felt whacking against the table. And, at the same time, she felt something on top of her head twitch.

And subsequently froze.

Twisting slowly to look behind her, Crystal followed the tail that was sat behind her up and onto her own body, and at the same time strained against the top of her head, feeling something on top of her head flexing. And, all Crystal could think of in that moment was a pretty simple thought...'Awesome.'

Her little inspection of herself wasn't missed by the huntress, who watched with a confused look as the girl looked over her own tail and flexed her ears, eventually chalking it up to her being worried that they were gone or something. A lot of Faunus haters would leave their victims alive, but amputate their Faunus trait, and she shuddered at the reminder.

Sighing, the doctor brought the pairs attention to her, and she frowned at her scroll. "Crystal, for the most part yes, that will be fine, but you still need a guardian, and there's no way in hell I can take you on." She then looked at the huntress, who frowned and, after a moment, made a so-so gesture with her hand. "What's that supposed to mean, so-so?"

"Ugh, it means maybe. I have two daughters and a husband back home who probably won't appreciate me coming back from a mission with a third daughter at my side." The woman responded, putting her hands on her hip as she raised from her chair. "Look, I want to help, really Crystal, I do, but...I've got it. What if she stays here with you, and while I'll be her legal guardian, she'll be like...a sneaky daughter, so that way, while sure, technically I'm her guardian, she can do what she wants. I mean, Crystal seems happy enough with the arrangement." Both woman looked at Crystal, who was bobbing her head frantically with the suggestion.

"Fine. But if the council comes sniffing, this is on your shoulders!" The doctor pointed at the woman, who merely smirked.

* * *

'WAIT, WHAT?'

The text on the scroll read, and Kara frowned at Crystal, who seemed to be tapping her foot impatiently. "I said you're gonna have to learn to control your aura before I let you into the clinic again."

'But my stuff!' the hastily written response said, and Kara crossed her arms.

"Listen to me, Crystal. If you don't control your aura, you're gonna end up breaking some very important things. I don't want to come in and see crushed doorknobs. You were quite lucky your aura only came in slowly, and it answers the question of how your neck healed." As she mentioned the wound, Crystal unconsciously raised a hand to her scar, frowning. "So, please, just rein it in. I kinda wish Sum was here, she'd know how to damn well do it."

Throwing her hands up in the air, Crystal resisted the urge to flip off Kara, instead focusing in on the weird energy she felt in her body. It was almost like...power, flowing from the core of her body outwards, and she could focus it on points in her body to get different results. If she honed it on her hands or feet, she could punch and kick without damaging her hands and feet, and she hit far harder than her puny little body could ever pull off naturally.

By contrast, spreading it out thinly across her entire body was almost like augmenting herself. When she did it the first time, she found herself running a good bit faster than normal, and when she ended up running into a wall, while it still hurt, she didn't have a broken nose or any blood pouring out, despite hitting it far faster than normal running speed.

But now, she had to figure out the complete inverse. Instead of augmenting herself, she had to stop the energy from flowing out and messing with her body. Inwardly cursing whatever force of karmic justice she had inevitably pissed off to get stuck trying to do this, she tried pulling the energy back from her body, bundling it up into her core and feeling the energy almost protesting her action, trying to leech out to her body again.

But, with a mixture of sheer stubbornness and willpower, she shunted the energy back, and held it in place for a few moments, feeling a little strange at the absence of strength she was growing accustomed to.

With one mental hand on the metaphorical doorstep of her aura, Crystal reached out to a nearby bin lid, clenching her hand around it and almost jumping for joy when the metal didn't buckle under her grip. Though of course, said joy caused her to drop her control, and the lid handles crushed under her grasp, making Crystal curse harshly into the air.

Of course, being unable to speak made the whole thing a moot point, but it was still cathartic to make the motions of swearing, even if no sound escaped her lips. And Kara, leaning against a nearby wall, just smirked at the sight of the young girl getting incredibly frustrated. Of course, it wasn't something to be learned in a day, but what amazed Kara was that, with only a few moments, the girl had managed to press back her aura and use a normal level of strength, something it took most aura-active people a year of training to do.

Turning back at Kara with a pleading look, Crystal had to hold back her smirk when Kara wilted under her puppy-dog eyes. "Okay fine, I guess I did just say that you could control it, not that you could hold it. Though if you can't hold it back within a week I really will kick you out." The smile on the doctor's face off-set her threat.

And, if she could say anything back, Crystal knew she would have replied with the highest pitch "Hai, Kara-hakase!" she could muster. Instead, she had to settle for simply nodding at the woman, dropping off the bin-lid and skipping over to the clinic door, throwing it open and sighing silently.

* * *

Watching the red-haired woman Crystal had come to know as her mother stumble through the clinic doors, one hand at her midriff and an eye closed, she immediately knew something was wrong, all but punching the bell Kara had given her to get her attention, while she darted to her mother's side, immediately finding the gaping wound in her guts, but also finding a second wound higher up on her chest, pouring out just as much blood, and she cursed the fact that she hadn't yet been taught how to do medical stuff with her aura.

Looking up at her mother's eyes, Crystal hated that fact that she recognised the look she was receiving as the one her own true mother gave her when she told Crystal to get out of the house, as she was pinned by a piece of wood and the fire was spreading. It was the same look which she woke up to years later, in her nightmares, the last thing she saw of her entire family before the fire took them all.

Gritting her teeth, Crystal, screamed her anger out, and renewed her anger when nothing came out, though her mother seemed to understand, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. Ignoring the blood, Crystal wrapped her own arms around her mother, letting tears slip through her clenched eye-lids as she sobbed into her mother's chest.

Losing her true mother had almost broken her, but she put herself back together. And, while she hadn't known this mother anywhere near as long, nor had that maternal bond with her, she still loved the woman nonetheless. And, as she felt the strength of the arms around her wane and the woman in her arms slowly slumped onto her, to the point she had to use a little aura to keep them standing, Crystal knew she had just lost her only anchor again, and now she was adrift in an unfamiliar world, the only place she could call home was now soiled with the death of her adoptive mother.

Fuck that.

Crystal grit her teeth as she grabbed Summer behind the knees, hoisting the woman up and carrying her into the clinic proper, setting her on the table and stepping back, her tail taut and ears raised as she bared her teeth in anger. Closing her eyes, Crystal didn't know it, but as her emotions swirled, and her rage overtook everything, her aura, a midnight black, coalesced around her, enveloping her in darkness and absolutely terrifying Kara, who had finally come out from her office in a hurry.

And, as suddenly as she had appeared in the world, Crystal dissolved into the inky darkness.

* * *

With her eyes closed, all Crystal could say about the sensation she felt after letting her emotions flare was vertigo. Opening her eyes, a sort of half-darkness appeared before her. She could see Kara, staring above her. She could see the underside of the table she was stood next to not a few moments beforehand, where Summer now lay. But, weirdly, she could see that her perspective was almost from the floor, as if she'd shrunk.

Trying to take a step towards Kara, Crystal cringed at the absolutely vomit-inducing sensation moving around caused her, and she quickly held herself still, looking up and around and trying to figure out just what had happened.

By this point, Kara had compartmentalized her disappearance and had darted over to her mother's side, but Crystal could tell, though she didn't know how, that she was either dead, or very nearly gone. Kara was a good doctor, but even she couldn't bring back someone as far gone as Summer was.

Wishing she was elsewhere, the same vertigo sensation lurched through Crystal's body, and she found herself in the shadows beside a familiar shop her mother had taken her to for some clothing.

Cursing the reminder, Crystal pondered that maybe this was her semblance, though it seemed a bit erratic and irritating. Thinking of a quiet alleyway she remembered walking through one day, her body lurched again, and lo and behold, she was then in the darkness of the alley, or rather, beneath it.

Gazing up, Crystal attributed the sight to being on the other side of a puddle, looking up at the world through a looking glass perhaps. And, since her ability seemed to respond to her will, she willed herself out of her window.

With a final and rather distressing lurch, she was pushed out of the floor, and sprawled out immediately, landing on her back and breathing heavily. Despite herself, she felt a small smile slip on her face, though it quickly vanished as the thought of what caused her ability appearing came to light. With a grumble, she willed herself back into the ground, watching this time as shadows seemed to envelop her from her prone position and draw her downwards. Once in the darkness, she willed herself back to the clinic, and after a few moments of re-centring herself, pulled herself out of the ground behind Kara, announcing her arrival by tapping her foot on the ground lightly, the bell long forgotten on the front desk she was manning.

Taking her eyes off the woman on the table for a few moments to confirm who she thought was behind her, Kara allowed a grimace to appear on her face as she shook her head. "She's probably not-" the began only to see Crystal shake her head and give a small smile of her own, nodding towards the woman sadly and shaking her head. The 'I know' was obviously not verbal, but Kara still picked up on it, giving a sad smile to the girl. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." She then turned back to Summer, hearing the hesitant footsteps trudging off towards the area the pair lived in, presumably to wash the blood off for the second time in recent memory.

* * *

"No, absolutely not."

Kara metaphorically and physically put her foot down in the face of the young girl before her, who crossed her arms and appeared just as adamant in her request. Quickly typing out another sentence on Kara's scroll, she shoved it at Kara, disappearing into her shadows as soon as Kara had ahold of the object, leaving the woman to curse at the darkness for a few moments.

Whilst that was happening, Crystal was emerging from her darkness near Oscuro Academy, her heart set on entering the school despite Kara's frequent yells about how she wasn't ready, that her 'mother wouldn't want that kind of life for her' and all that other crap.

She wasn't ignorant of the world anymore. Spending almost every spare moment she had in the library, Crystal had read every book she could get ahold of, and ignoring the snickering from the other library inhabitants, who saw a young Faunus at a table with books far too large for her, and presumed she was just pretending to read, to look grown-up or some such nonsense.

What was actually happening was that she was learning far more about the world. What the creatures of Grimm were, what Dust was, and Aura, and Semblances, as well as the Combat Academies, the Great War, the Faunus Rights Revolution, everything she could get her hands on, she devoured ferociously, building up knowledge of the world quickly.

And now, after her mother's death, she felt like the best place for her right now was in a Combat Academy. Reading every book she could find on semblances, she couldn't find a single one which did what she could do. There were a few similar ones, people who used shadows to evade attacks, but nothing quite like her ability to hide and immediately transport across vast distances.

Thus, entering Oscuro Academy would be in alignment with her goal of making sure she was strong enough that she wouldn't lose her life to a low-life again, and...if she ever found someone to love again, she would be strong enough to protect them.

She conveniently ignored the fact that even if she knew how to fight, her mother wouldn't have been helped. Instead, she began focusing on making sure she also learnt how to project her aura onto other people, which would assist with healing them if they were injured, though she read the horror stories of people who healed too much and drained their aura dry, burning their own souls out and dying. With a smirk, she dismissed the thought that she would ever manage to push so hard she would burn her own soul out like that.

According to Kara, she had a scary amount of aura, probably the reason why she could use her semblance pretty much as casually as she liked, though it seemed her aura drained far faster at defending against physical maladies compared to normal, something her mother had remarked on when she pressed her for help, one of the few lessons the woman had given the young girl-woman. After a few moments, she had reasoned that maybe her aura was far more focused on keeping her out of harms way, rather than directly taking a hit.

It would make sense, since she quite liked the idea of avoiding attacks entirely, at least when compared to being able to merely tank it. She remembered times where her friends from school would drag her into playing games with them, and she'd always be the sneaky rogue, never getting hit. She'd merely not need the protection of tanks in favour of being simply impossible to hit, always circumventing her way around whatever attack an enemy would throw at her.

And, since semblances were meant to be influenced by personalities, hers seemed to fit her pretty well, allowing her to evade any attack and escape when needed. And hey, if it was also useful for travelling, she couldn't exactly complain.

With a smirk on her face, Crystal strolled up the entrance of the Combat School, having already 'spoken' with the headmaster and gotten a place, playing off her orphan status and getting a nice dormitory room on campus for the duration of her stay.

Now all she had to do was avoid all the numb-skull kids she would be surrounded with for a few years, enrol in a true combat academy, gain the skills necessary to protect her and her loved ones, and she'd be set for...what?

That question brought the girl-woman up short, and she almost tripped up as she ran the question over her mind a few times. What, exactly, did she plan on doing after she got the skill she needed to survive in a hostile world like Remnant? She didn't particularly like the idea of living her entire life in danger, constantly facing off against Grimm. But, honestly, could she really think of much else to do? She didn't think a regular old job would really suit her, not after finding out she had awesome abilities.

But, as the felt a hand on her shoulder suddenly, Crystal pushed her thoughts away, instead plastering a small smirk on her face and turning to meet the first of whoever she'd be seeing at the school for the next however many years, and hopefully make a few 'friends'.

"Wow, they let animals in here now?"

Or they could all be massive racist assholes. Cursing the fact she couldn't swear her throat out at the brat with his hand on her shoulder, she instead settled for smirking at him, before dropping into her shadow and appearing behind him with a gentle shove, just enough to trip him up.

Is what she'd tell people who asked. She may have put slightly more force than necessary into the push and sent him ass over tea kettle across the courtyard, but hey, he was an asshole. She loved the fact her hearing was absurdly good, and the tail...well, it was kinda useful for balance, and if she augmented it with aura she could use it to hold her weight and hang from it. So, while it was less useful, it still could be used for stuff. Most of the time she just used it to hold stuff like drinks and random crap. Calling her an animal for the traits she would normally be born with was just uncalled for.

Watching the boy lay on the ground for a few moments, Crystal honestly worried for a moment that she'd knocked him out or something, but he lunged back up, turning to face her with fear on his face as he took several wary steps backwards. Apparently though, seeing as she hadn't said anything, he gained some of his confidence back, putting a sneer on his face as he looked at her.

"Can't even think of anything to say back huh? Typical Faunus scum!" he remarked, though he shivered involuntarily when the girl smirked and was subsequently confused when she lost her smirk in place of a neutral expression and looked behind him.

"I would ask you do not attack other students on your first day Crystal." The voice from behind him startled the boy, and he whipped around to see the headmaster stood behind him. "While I have a fondness for those who seek knowledge as you do, there is a limit to my generosity. And you, Coby, should think before you speak. Crystal there both cannot speak and is far more skilled than you can currently claim to be. Perhaps your first lesson can be that you do not poke a sleeping bear far stronger than you, lest it awakens to gobble you right up. Now, both of you should head to your respective classes for the day, I would hate to see either of you in detention today."

With that reprimand, the pair of them darted off, 'Coby' pointedly avoiding standing anywhere near her as they rushed off. If that was what she had to expect for the coming years, Crystal would definitely need all the willpower she could muster.

* * *

*Snap*

The loud crack of the wooden weapon swinging down onto her arm, breaking upon her aura and delivering its own damage to her body, was audible throughout the hall, drawing plenty of eyes to their spar.

With a wince, Crystal drew away from her opponent, flexing her arm and gritting her teeth. After a few tries to clench her hand, she finally gave up on it, letting it hang by her side and taking her weapon in one hand, whilst her opponent seemed to take a moment to figure out what they should do now, finally settling on simply throwing their ruined weapon away and falling into a pretty sloppy unarmed stance.

With no preamble, Crystal lunged forwards, jabbing her weapon forwards into their guard and bashing their chest, knocking the air from their lungs, before hooking her weapon around their arms, yanking them forwards and over her leg, throwing them behind her in a heap.

Screw tempering her abilities against opponents of 'equal level' to her. If they let her actually use her damn semblance, she would've taken not a single damn hit. But no, she had to fight without her semblance, basically ignoring the fact she could use it even after her aura was broken, a fact proved after a few students decided to try and 'get rid of her' by drugging her and beating the hell out of her. Her aura got broken in the fight, but despite that, she was still able to pull herself into her shadows and keep fighting.

Stupid bloody curriculum. Turning around to see her opponent shaking their head in a daze, Crystal frowned, reaching out with a hand to help them up, only to be swatted away with a grunt. Rolling her eyes, Crystal tossed her weapon onto her back as they got up.

"Crystal, go get that arm checked out, but good job, just work on your defence. And-" She tuned out whatever they had to say about her opponent, already looking over her arm and shrugging while she left the hall for the nurse's office. Since entering the school, the weakness in her aura was put on full display. For all other students, a swing like that, while draining, wouldn't get through their aura. But, for Crystal, the weapon still injured her, even if it was nowhere near as bad as it would be if she had no aura. Of course, for the few that had semblances, none were as versatile as hers, so she merely accepted the disadvantage.

That seemed to baffle the teachers in the school, this young girl accepting her weakness and merely incorporating it into her thinking, rather than bitching out as they'd expect. Of course, she was kind of cheating, as she had the mind of a 20-something-year-old, rather than a however-old mind her body should have, but hey, it worked to make people underestimate her, so she could use that against them.

Now if only she could find a weapon that felt good to her, she'd be happy. Her mind still thought it was crazy that these hunters went out with melee weapons to kill Grimm, rather than giving them all massive guns and keeping the Grimm at a distance. Sure, they have aura to augment their strength, but she was much happier staying far away from anything which could damage her, which was why she spent most of her time looking at ranged weapons, even if the teachers constantly insisted she have a sword, or a hammer, or a damn pair of daggers.

At least there was a good alternative in mechashift weaponry. It really boggled the poor girl-woman's mind when she first saw a mechashift weapon folding on its own, and at a far faster speed than mere hydraulics would ever achieve. Both exciting and worrying the girl was the idea that, in her final year at the school, she'd have to make her own weapon.

She didn't want to make her own weapon. She'd feel far safer if a professional made her something, that way she wouldn't be worried that she'd mess something up and the whole thing would blow up and break in her hands when she first tried to use it. But apparently it was standard practice for all hunters to make their own weapons, and fortunately enough, there were plenty of students who felt much like her, so there were options for support when making the weapon.

Nudging open the door to the office for the third time that week alone, the nurse took one look at her and frowned, waving a hand towards the chair she spent more time sat in than out of and going back to writing out something on her desk. Thumping down loudly on the chair, Crystal began looking about the room again, reading over posters she'd already read a dozen times, smirking each time she saw the little carvings in the wall other bored students had likely made.

"Crystal, this is the third time this week. I understand your aura is abnormal, but this is still unacceptable." The nurse said, looking up to meet Crystal's disinterested eyes and sighing. "You know if you make getting injured a regular occurrence you might lose your chance at reaching anywhere like Shade or Beacon..." She said bluntly, not missing the fact that it still didn't garner much interest in the girl, who spared her another moment of staring before going back to observing the room. "Well, not my problem if you don't care."

Crystal just hummed silently.

* * *

"Well Miss Crystal, I suppose despite your disability, you are proficient enough for admission, and your transcripts provide a rather glowing report of your skills, even if certain...aspects leave much to be desired. I presume you have already attempted to fix the defensive problem your aura has?"

The blonde-haired professor looked over her papers at the mute girl in her office, who tilted her head for a moment before nodding and pulling out her scroll, tapping away at it. "While you may not be a student yet, please refrain from-"

Her tirade was cut off by the girl handing her the scroll and pointing at it. With a frown, Glynda Goodwitch took the device, looking over it quickly, and reading the words written upon it, before glancing back up at the girl with an apologetic look. "I see. My apologies for assuming you were wasting time messaging or doing otherwise. It is a shame your aura won't be as good at defending yourself, but I guess with your semblance that isn't really a problem for you now is it?" She said, watching the girl as a small smirk appeared on her face and she nodded. "Well, I suppose all that's left is to welcome you to Beacon. You'll need to be on the airship into the school for the initiation, but all the necessary information will be sent to your scroll. Given your unique circumstances, we will require you to do a little paperwork, though I'm sure you can handle it."

The teacher quirked a small smile at the girl when she mentioned the paperwork, one the mute returned quickly, quickly grabbing her hand and shaking it before falling into the ground, leaving a bewildered Professor to look at the floor she just disappeared into. "How...unusual."

"Unusual indeed." The voice of the Headmaster rang through the room, and Goodwitch had to stop her heart racing as the man, who could be quiet as a wraith, appeared in her office, sipping from his ever-present mug, eyes twinkling with amusement. "We seem to have a few unique individuals this year, though I do wonder how she knew of my approach. Not to mention two Silver-Eyed warriors now within easy reach. I have to wonder just where this Crystal came from. After Summer's unfortunate demise, the only other Silver-Eyed warrior than young Ruby I knew of was Maria, and she lost hers years ago. Hmm, perhaps Qrow should find himself in Vacuo and try to sniff out either of the girl's parents. Even if they are deceased, they may lead us to more Silver-Eyed warriors in the form of more offspring perhaps."

Taking another sip from his mug, Ozpin looked at the patch of floor Crystal had vanished into, a small smirk on his face. "Definitely an interesting semblance as well. Almost like a mesh of Blake Belladonna and Raven Branwen's abilities...truly versatile, even if she does have to sacrifice her defences for it." The man mused quietly, just barely audible to the Deputy Headmistress. "I look forward to seeing what she does with it. Good day, Glynda."

Leaving her office in much the same way as he arrived, Glynda sighed for a moment before getting back to her work, unaware of the other occupant of the room sighing her own silent breath. But Crystal's was one more of anger and worry than of relief. It was rather nerve-racking when Ozpin looked right at her position, since while she hadn't found anybody capable of detecting her or pulling her from her shroud, she honestly thought for a moment that he'd caught her.

Evidently, he hadn't, if the way he spoke so freely was any indication. But now Crystal had an avenue to research, and the Headmaster had unwittingly helped her with it. Apparently, her eyes were special for some reason, considering the way he spoke so reverently about the Silver-Eyed warriors. But what truly angered her was the way he spoke about her, as though she were a pawn to be trained and harnessed, rather than a young girl they should be guiding into protecting people. But, as the Headmaster would soon learn, she wasn't a mere pawn. She was a queen, playing on her own board, and she was not going to just roll over and march to war on the orders of a mad King. She ignored the fact that she sounded slightly insane attributing her life to a game of chess.

Finally pulling herself away from her position beside the teacher's desk, Crystal appeared in an alleyway she vaguely remembered walking through on her way to Beacon, quickly yanking herself out of her shadowy veil and into the normal world again, only wincing slightly at the feeling. In the years since discovering her ability, she'd grown very used to using it, and was able to do so with only minor discomfort now, a far cry from knee-weakening nausea that used to plague her with each trip.

Quickly checking her holsters just as a habit, she smiled when her hands met the familiar handles of her weapons. After a very lengthy debate back and forth between her and the senior weaponsmith available at Oscuro, they finally settled on a compromise. Crystal would get what she wanted, two high-calibre revolvers capable of punching through most Grimm bone plate handily. But, in the same vein, the weaponsmith would get what he wanted as well, adding a function that turned her revolvers into short swords.

And, as much as she hated it, she had to admit it felt satisfying to use in combat, as the twin-form weapons were absurdly quick to swap between forms, meaning one moment she could be firing off bullets, and the next she'd have a sword in hand running you through. Several of her spars had been won simply by changing her weapon from a sword to a pistol and shooting her opponent where they weren't expecting it, or blocking an attack with her revolver and then extending it into a sword, stabbing at her enemy while their weapon was trapped still.

With her first incursion out beyond the safety of the town she lived in, she knew that her weapons were just as handy against Grimm, using a liberal mix of her semblance and her guns to quickly whittle down the Beowolf pack, only using her blades when a single one remained. Sure, they were handy, but she still preferred to just shoot her enemy from a distance.

Besides, her aura wouldn't help her much if she got hit by a claw. Her right arm still had the long claw scars from when she got slightly too overconfident in her last year before Beacon, fighting against a Beowolf and paying the price. She still killed the Grimm, but the event definitely cemented in her the idea that while her aura turned an amputation into merely a severe wound, she had to be far more careful than other students.

With a shrug, Crystal drew herself out of her thoughts, walking out of the alley after patting herself down and immediately taking a step back as she almost barreled straight into a well dressed orange-haired man, laughing silently to herself at the flamboyant eyeliner around his left eye and the almost emo hairstyle covering his right eye. Of course, said silent laughter drew his attention, and he turned on her with a malicious smirk.

"What's so funny then furball?" The nickname made Crystal stop laughing, and she fixed him with a glare, unwittingly spiking her ears and baring her teeth at him. After a few moments, the man dropped his eyes from her own and looked first at her body, then up and towards the prominent scar across her throat, and Crystal regretted not wearing her scarf. Looking back up at her eyes, Crystal could have sworn his gaze softened and it looked as though he felt some amount of sympathy for the girl, though he covered up everything quickly with a swagger as he turned away from her. "Whatever, let's get a move on."

He gestured towards the men who were following him, and Crystal watched them leave for a few moments before shrugging and dropping into her shadows, slowly trailing them by leaping from shadow to shadow down the road, leaving them none the wiser as to her presence.

Watching the assembled group scare away civilians with their presence, Crystal had to wonder just who it was she was following, and cursed herself for not keeping up with recent news more. Evidently, they were something of note, but she didn't know exactly what for. If she went in swinging and accidentally attacked a hunter renowned for being ruthless, she'd both bite off more than she could chew, and also probably not look too good in regards to getting into Beacon.

Fortunately for her, as she watched them enter a shop and immediately threaten the shopkeeper into giving them his dust, she could answer her own question, and she put her hands on her guns, mentally preparing to leap out from her shadow and attack at an opportune moment. Her first target would definitely be the orange-haired guy, he seemed the most dangerous, so taking him out would be the priority. The other guys, wielding blades and axes, they looked far more like just hired hands, and even if they all had aura unlocked, they probably weren't well trained.

That was the plan.

Instead, a red bundle leapt out of the window, throwing one of said goons to the ground only a few steps from Crystal's shroud and standing up, their weapon, which was a bloody great scythe, unfurling onto their shoulder. Blinking a few times just to make sure she was seeing that right, Crystal huffed, watching as the goons charged her and got their asses handed to them. Whoever the girl was, she was good. Young, but definitely on the higher end of the spectrum in terms of skill, at least compared to the students she'd been fighting if nothing else.

As the last goon fell to the floor, Crystal and the orange-haired leader regarded the girl closely, and after a few words she was too far to hear, he snapped his cane up, firing a shot at her and running through the smoke.

Crystal prepared to intercept the man and take him down, but before she could do anything, she heard a gunshot from the red girl and watched her use her scythe, which was apparently also a gun, to propel herself onto the roof the man had climbed onto, calling out to him, and Crystal facepalmed, wondering why she didn't just shoot him in the back and drain his aura.

Hearing an engine rearing up, she moved between the pair defensively within her shadows still, and watched a Bullhead fly up from behind the man, startling the red girl, to which the other man took advantage of, drawing out a dust crystal and throwing it, aiming with his cane to shoot it.

Snarling at the underhanded attack, even as she appreciated the advantage it gave, Crystal leapt out of her shadows, kicking the crystal upwards and out of the path of the orange-haired man's projectile, before drawing one of her revolvers and shooting the oncoming projectile out of the air with a boom, following it up with a side-step out of the path of his next projectile and twisting her body, drawing her other revolver and firing it, making the man deflect the round with his cane.

Dropping into her shadow, Crystal then appeared behind the man, changing one revolver to a sword and firing her remaining revolver at the man, draining his aura a little and following it with a quick slash, which he deflected easily with his cane, incorporating a shot into his swing that Crystal evaded nimbly, changing her other revolver to a sword and drawing his attention to it, shifting her first sword back to revolver form and firing it, getting another hit as his cane was busy with her sword, constantly swapping between revolver and sword to keep him on the back foot.

At the situation being turned on him, the man lashed out at her viciously with a kick, one she barely avoided by dropping into her shadow, giving him enough time to leap into the Bullhead. And, as she focused on trying to transport herself into the Bullhead, she saw a woman in a dress appear and wave a hand, forming fire in front of her and launching it at the stunned girl on the roof, forcing her to instead transport to the girl, grabbing her and throwing her from the roof, before bringing her shadows up again and wincing as flames brushed against her arm just as she disappeared.

Appearing on the street in a hurry, Crystal quickly patted out the flames biting at her sleeve, silently cursing out the bitch who set her on fire, the orange-haired thief, the girl who stood around dopily and almost got turned into a cinder. She almost continued on cursing anyone she could blame, but an insistent tug at her arm drew her from her tirade, and she turned to meet the awe-filled silver eyes of the crimson girl she saved.

"Are you a huntress?" She asked gleefully, frowning lightly when she shook her hand in a so-so gesture, patting away the last embers clinging to her ruined sleeve. "So-so, what do you mean so-so?" Crystal frowned at her, pulling out her scroll and writing out a little, while the girl just watched, confused.

Thrusting it into her face, Crystal watched her read it, and realization dawned on her face but did nothing to replace the awe in her eyes. She could safely say she didn't expect to hear the next words from the girl's mouth.

"Can I have your autograph?" Those words made Crystal freeze for a moment, before she doubled over in silent laughter, almost falling to the ground and rolling about with amusement, while the poor girl was just utterly confused at the silent girl laughing about something. Quickly checking over herself, she looked none the worse for wear, plenty of thanks to the girl before her, and she winced at the sight of the slightly blackened skin and ruined sleeve on her arm.

* * *

Leaning against a wall in the police station, Crystal smirked at the Headmaster as he walked down the corridor and froze upon seeing her, though he quickly plastered a genial smile on his face as he walked up to her. "Ahh, Crystal. I hoped to catch you in Glynda's office, but you must have slipped past me." The smile on his face faltered when she folded her arms and rolled her eyes, thumbing towards the closed door.

"Ahh yes, that. I heard a 'huntress' protected young Miss Rose, but it seems she may have been exaggerating somewhat. She seems to have taken quite a liking to you." He said, smiling behind his mug when Crystal frowned and huffed at him. "Well, I would like a word with Ruby. If you wish you can join us, otherwise you are free to go, it's already been established that you aided in stopping Roman Torchwick from robbing a dust Store, so nothing will be done to either of you, despite the property damage Miss Rose caused with her fight."

Shaking her head, Crystal casually saluted towards the man, and glanced at the door she had been stood next to, listening to Glynda terrify the poor girl for a few moments before watching Ozpin step in, catching the girls eye for a moment through the doorway and waving softly with a smile, one the girl replied to with a big smile and wave of her own, before the door closed and Crystal let the smile fall from her face, disappearing into her shadows and materializing in her little apartment, leaping onto her bed and closing her eyes, intent on sleeping the day away...

Wait.

Her mind rewound her conversation. And then did so again when she ran through it. And, cursing as loudly as she was capable of, which was completely silently, Crystal grabbed her scroll, dropping into shadow and appearing back in the corridor she was in only a minute ago, all but kicking open the door to the interrogation room and ignoring the surprise evident on all 3 occupants faces, thrusting the message on her scroll into Ozpin's face with a scowl, watching him read quickly and look at her with a peculiar expression.

"Hmm. Miss Rose, I will be seeing you during initiation, and I wish you good luck. Now, if you could please leave us, Crystal has something very important to discuss with me. If you wish to catch up with her, you can do so the day before initiation, she will be there at the same time as you." He said calmly, and Ruby picked up in the unspoken message that this wasn't something she could be allowed to hear, if the entrance Crystal had made was any indication. With a wave to the girl who saved her, she left the room, Glynda following her out to take her to her father.

The instant the door was closed, Ozpin gave Crystal a very hard look, almost searching for the layers to peel back. "How do you know that name?" he asked, and Crystal clicked out a message on her scroll, showing it to him. "I'm surprised, Summer would normally have told me something as important as adoption."

Rolling her eyes, Crystal typed out the reasoning behind the 'adoption', which was less an official thing, more just to keep her out of the orphanages. She then went on to practically demand to know whether Ruby was Summer's actual daughter.

"Are you certain, absolutely certain, Summer Rose isn't your real mother?" Ozpin pressed the girl, ignoring her question in favor of satisfying his own need to know. "You have Silver Eyes, and that is a trait very, very rare to come across. The chances of Summer Rose of all people finding and adopting you is very unlikely. It would be far more likely that she was truly your mother." He inquired, quirking his lips when Crystal shook her head and typed out on her scroll again. "If you're absolutely sure, then I suppose it is a happy coincidence. Though it was rather smart of Summer to register you in Vacuo, as that way her husband wouldn't hear about it without either you or your adoptive mother directly telling him, or him going to Vacuo and checking Summer's public records. Might I ask, what happened to your true parents?"

The look that ghosted across Crystals face told all the story Ozpin needed to know, and he frowned. "I apologize then, for your loss. And yes, Ruby Rose is Summer Rose's biological daughter. Well, if that cleared up your questions..." He gave Crystal a few moments to add more, but she appeared lost in thought. "...Then I suppose we are done here. Good evening Crystal and I hope I shall still see you for your initiation."

The way he left his sentence open-ended was not lost on Crystal, and she knew more than he did that he was worried she would disappear on him. Of course, she had no intentions of doing so, far too interested in finding out what the daughter of her adoptive mother was like, as well as where her other daughter was. Plus, Beacon was renowned for being exceptional in training hunters, and she wasn't one to scorn an opportunity like that she had just been given. Her first life, getting a scholarship despite her orphan status, was a testament to that.

Leaving the room, Crystal watched Ozpin disappear around a corner, and after a few moments rubbed her eyes, stretching and groaning silently, before disappearing into her shadows for the final time that evening, appearing in her living room and, after a few moments of debate, dragging out the lone bottle of alcohol she kept in her small apartment, deciding this was one of those times she could afford to be a bit lax with herself. Finding out you just, by complete accident, saved the life of your sister by technicality, and that she would be going to the same combat school as you...that had a way of shattering all your well-laid plans, and surely, after an event like that, a few drinks weren't too much to ask for.

But, while her plans were now in tatters, she was good at improvising, and she spent that night lying on her bed, thinking of just what her future years would bring...

* * *

**10K words...Wow.**

**I didn't plan on making this so long, it just...kinda...happened. Sorry. It would have been out Saturday if someone didn't keep distracting me. (Not my fault, this has nothing to do with me!)**

**Yeah, it's not my illustrious assistant's fault, this is something else entirely. But whatever. I hope you enjoyed this. I really enjoyed writing it.**

**Next Chapter: 2020 =P**


	2. Chapter 2

**I swear I don't do this on purpose. I just...I enjoy starting new stories and going nuts with them.**

**By the way, sorry about taking...a fucking month and a half since an update. Whatever, VR is far too much fun. Even if I only own Beat Saber and Robo-Recall, it's...incredible, especially with the Quest, wireless VR is so...free. Being able to jump and spin and dance without a wire tangling you up like some demented bondage is amazing.**

**Also, since Illustrious seems to like the name, that is now their name.**

_**Yeah, I think the name is pretty neat, so screw it, if any of you fine lovely people ever want to talk with me rather than Fire over there, just say so =D. Also, if there's ever bold text in italics like this, that's me talking!**_

**So yeah, welcome Illustrious to the party everyone. ****Anyway, on with the chapter...**

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

Despite the years lived on Remnant, Crystal still just couldn't wrap her head around Bullheads and airships.

Seriously. The arms on them were so thin and stubby, it was a wonder the engines didn't snap off at the lightest manoeuvre. And the airships had much the same problem, they looked like all that was holding them together was wishful thinking! As such, while she would still ride on them, she gave all aerial vehicles a very wary look before boarding, making it a point to ignore the engineers around the ship to inspect it herself. Despite the men coming over occasionally to reassure her about it, Crystal didn't care.

She knew it was irrational, just like her old fear of spiders, but that's the damn point. Much like how that tiny little spider can't actually hurt her, the airship had less chance of crashing than she had of tripping and snapping her neck in the next 5 minutes. But, even so, she still felt the need to reassure herself that the ship was normal, and not built to fail immediately.

The girl-woman covered it all up by pretending as though she had a strong interest in the gravity dust lining the ship and lightening it, as well as the engineering behind the engines that would hold the massive ship aloft. If anyone pushed, she could just write out that she wanted to one day go aboard Amity Colosseum and study the engines that held the absolutely monumental colosseum in the air. Yeah, totally. It sounded reasonable enough, surely an aspiring huntress must have equally lofty hobbies, like aeronautical mega-engineering.

Of course, it helped that if anybody tried asking her a lot of annoying questions, she could just get annoyed and point at her throat. Most people would consider it far too awkward to continue trying to converse with her when they realized she quite literally couldn't speak to them. Not that she couldn't actually converse at all, but her method of speaking was usually to just write stuff on a scroll, which got annoying after a while.

There were always a few bastards who would just use her as a sounding board anyway, rattling off yes or no questions and trying to keep the one-sided conversation going, and if her glare wasn't enough to ward them off, she always had the option to just disappear into her semblance for a few moments and wait for them to leave.

Finally satisfying her urge to make sure the ship wasn't going to end up nose-first into the dirt from losing its engines due to structural incompetence, Crystal looked over to the open landing ramp and sighed, hating just how big the damn ship was. It'd take at least a good minute to walk from her position over to the ramp where students were steadily streaming onto the ship. A moment later she was appearing from the shadow cast by the ship, freaking out more than a handful of the other students with her sudden disappearing and reappearing.

Apparently, if she moved slowly, it looked like her own shadow was absorbing her, and when emerging it was like she broke out of the shadows. But, when appearing quickly, like in the middle of a fight or when she was impatient, it was far more like sudden teleportation, spending less than a tenths of a second in her shadows before reappearing. Whatever the case, it was always amusing freaking out new people with her abilities.

Checking her holsters once more and fingering the trigger guards of her revolvers, Crystal looked over her shoulder at the still-stunned students before smirking and boarding the ship. Definitely a handy ability, when all was said and done. Sure, the drawbacks were nasty and potentially lethal, but the sheer utility outweighed that cost by a country mile.

"Hey, uhh...Dammit, what did Ozpin call you..."

The high-pitched voice called out behind her, and Crystal had to resist the urge to simply disappear into her semblance just so she could avoid dealing with the pint-sized problem she generated for herself. Sure, it was the right thing to do at the time, but she definitely didn't need the attention the girl was going to heap upon her. Holding back her sigh, Crystal rolled her head lazily around to look at the girl, taking in her posture, her eyes, hair, everything, and lining it all up neatly with the mental image she had painted for the girl who was legally meant to be her sister.

And then throwing said image out the window when the girl stood next to her, with an arm wrapped around her shoulders no doubt, leaned in to stare at Crystal. "Sis, didn't you say Oz called her Crystal?" The girl said unhelpfully, and Crystal barely caught herself from glaring openly at the girl. If the smirk on her face as Ruby's eyes lit up was any indication, she knew just how aggravating she was being.

"Yeah, Crystal! Hiya Crystal. Umm, soo...thankyouforsavingmeandhelpingme!" The girl blurted out, and Crystal found herself oddly endeared by the awkwardness the girl displayed. More than a few times, ignoring the warning of their peers about her, the so-called weird girl, boys, and even on occasion a few girls, would ask her to be their girlfriend.

Every single one of them...were just as awkward as the girl in front of her, and she always felt a little bad by rebuking them. Ignoring just how weird it would be for the girl-woman, who had a mind older by more than double compared to the students around her, she wasn't in combat school to have an awkward childhood relationship. Sure, she cultivated a few good links with those she saw value in, and looked forward to seeing where those connections got her in future, but aside from that, she mainly kept to herself, too focused on her goal of strength to really care about other people.

Seeing this girl in front of her, looking much like those students who asked for her affections, and being just as bashful and awkward about simply thanking her for her help...it was honestly kinda cute. It helped that she also felt slightly protective of the girl, not wanting the sole surviving trueborn daughter of Summer to come to serious harm.

Shaking her head at the girl, Crystal merely smiled, patting her shoulder and shrugging. When the girl looked confused, Crystal drew her scroll up, tapping away while absent-mindedly tugging at the scarf wrapped around her throat. It was originally the cloak of her adoptive mother, but it was so tattered and damaged after whatever had happened that, in honour of the woman who helped her so much, Crystal turned it into a scarf, both to keep her scar concealed when she wanted to avoid constant stares from people who would begin pointing and questioning about it, but also as a constant reminder of what she was fighting for. It did take the girl a while to realize that the answer to her question of what she wanted to do was staring her in the face.

Or rather, was wrapped around her throat.

She never wanted her adoptive mother to die, yet she did. So, surely if she became strong enough to prevent it ever happening to her loved ones again, she would also be able to protect other people and their loved ones. Plus, hunters made very good amounts of lien from their hunts, which would keep her healthy and content with her lot. Perhaps she could even find somebody to love again, though she snorted at the mere thought of it occurring any time soon.

Wrapping up her little message, Crystal spun it around on her hand, showing it to Ruby and watching her scan the text quickly, while her sister merely looked at her, with a furrowed brow. Raising an eyebrow at her, Crystal watched as the blonde-haired girl rubbed the back of her neck, quirking her jaw to the side and humming.

"S'just weird. Never thought much about it, but Silver Eyes are really rare. I mean, I don't make it a habit to look at people's eyes, but the only people I can think of that have eyes like that are Ruby, our mom, and apparently now you...huh." The girl said, thrusting a hand out and shrugging. "Whatever, names Yang. So, hear you dragged Rubes out of the way of a dust crystal huh?"

Taking the offered hand, Crystal shook it firmly, a smirk on her lips as she nodded. "Great. So uh, what's up with the whole no talking thing? Ruby here-" Yang rubbed the top of her sister's hair, mussing up her hair. "-said you never spoke to her either." The girl stated bluntly, and Crystal groaned, rubbing her eyes before hooking a finger onto her scarf, pulling it down and exposing the old scar, gesturing at it with her free hand before letting go of the scarf and tugging the ends back into place, whilst Yang just looked at her a little sheepishly, and Ruby looked...well, the easiest way to describe it would be horrified.

"Ohmygod, how did you get that? Are you okay? Ca-urk." Yang decided to cut in at that moment by yanking on her sister's cloak, drawing her out of her excitability.

"Ruby, I'm pretty sure if she wasn't okay she wouldn't be stood here smirking at you." Yang said with a smirk of her own, watching her sisters face light up like a cherry. Letting go of the cloak, Yang then noticed the bizarrely familiar fabric on the throat of the girl in front of them. "Say, you wouldn't happen to remember where you got that scarf? It looks like the same stuff our mom got Ruby for her cloak, as well as her own."

Crystal kept her face neutral as she shook her head, though internally she was panicking ever so slightly. It wasn't that she didn't want the two girls to know she was their half-sister through Summer, but it would definitely make things easier to just keep her distance. If she revealed it, inevitably Ruby would latch onto her, just because of her connection to Summer.

Clearing her scroll, Crystal tapped out a short message, and when she read it, Yang whistled lowly. "Hmm, wouldn't take you for someone who sewed stuff. Not that it isn't a useful thing to have. Lord knows Ruby wouldn't have survived long without it. The amount of times her cloak has been snagged and to-mmph."

Yang's embarrassing sentence was cut off by the little redhead, who slapped a hand over Yang's mouth and glared at her. "Yaaang. Say another word and I won't repair Ember Celica when it breaks...again." The seeming threat was enough to get the blonde to back off, though not without getting revenge in the form of licking her sister's hand.

Crystal just chuckled silently at the pair, before her ears snapped up from their place in her hair as she winced in pain, a high-pitched sound erupting from the speakers around the ship as the pilot announced their imminent departure. Ignoring the surprise on the two girls faces, Crystal silently cussed out the pilot, as well as whoever designed those damn speakers, rubbing her ears gently.

"Wow..." The quiet exclamation from Ruby drew Crystal's attention to the girl, who was looking at her ears in awe. Rubbing her eyes, Crystal just tapped out yet another message on her scroll. "Aww, but what if we don't both get through initiation?" Another hastily typed message. "Oh, okay!" The girl chirped happily, and Crystal sighed before turning to Yang, who just raised her hands placatingly.

"Hey, I like the idea, but I'm not quite as desperate as Ruby is. Seriously, it's weird how much she loves Faunus. But hey, thanks for at least making the offer, she's got something to tick off her bucket list soon I guess." Crystal just nodded absently along, more focused with folding her ears back up into her hair to hide them. Not that she was ashamed of her Faunus traits. In fact, she loved them. But they could definitely attract the wrong kind of attention if her very first day at combat school was any indication. Far easier to just nestle them in her long hair and keep her tail hidden under her clothes. A tiny bit uncomfortable, but worth it just to avoid being questioned.

She just hoped that Ruby wouldn't go telling everyone she met that Crystal was a Faunus. The girl was nice enough, but a bit...scatterbrained perhaps. She'd have to pull her aside at some point and warn her about it. But, as she wandered off from the pair with a wave and settled down in one of the more comfortable chairs in the airship, Crystal just closed her eyes and relaxed, letting her ears unfold slightly. Not enough to expose them when she was stationary, but a perfect mix of being relatively comfortable, whilst also hidden.

She couldn't do the same with her tail, but for whatever reason, her ears always seemed far more aggravating to hide. Her tail by comparison only got mildly uncomfortable being tucked away in her clothing, and it wasn't like she used it for much. Her ears were great for helping her hear things, but all her tail did was help a little with balance, and occasionally act as a third arm for holding things. Back in Vacuo, she'd seen a blonde monkey Faunus using his tail to drink tea from a teacup, which was both endlessly amusing to see, but also gave her a few ideas. Surely she could wield a weapon on her tail...

But, doing that would require her to try and incorporate a third weapon into her fighting style, and when she saw the Faunus using his tail like that, she had a month before Beacon, not nearly enough to rework her fighting style. Besides, with her tail hidden 90% of the time, it didn't matter much anyway. So, with a final sigh, Crystal let herself nap a little, looking forward to seeing just who she was going to be partnered with during her time at Beacon.

Oh, she wasn't worried about initiation. It was child's play to observe it one year by simply shadow-hopping across Sanus and appearing in the region, watching the students all get launched off a cliff and run about like headless chickens trying to find something, which when several pairs arrived at a set of ruins and picked things up, led Crystal to deduce that it was almost like an easter egg hunt. But where all the eggs were in one basket and the play-area was filled with nightmare monsters...Yeah.

Well, it didn't matter much. If all else failed, she still regarded herself as strong enough to protect herself and her still non-existent loved ones from harm. Of course, if a Leviathan appeared one day, she didn't think it was very likely she could protect anything but herself from that, but that wasn't the point. As long as nothing insane happened, the next few years would go just like the past few, and she'd walk out of Beacon a Huntress capable of protecting herself and others.

...Probably not as optimistic as the dreams and aspirations the Hunters-in-Training were likely to have, but hey, being a good bit older in mind than the teenagers around her definitely helped her in focusing her efforts to get to the initiation without incident, fly under the radar as an above-average but not particularly noteworthy student, graduate happily, and fade into obscurity.

Yeah...Easy.

* * *

Did she really have to jinx herself like that?

Crystal knew her luck was pretty bad. I mean, her life had been one aggravating and tragic event after another. From the housefire taking her entire family away, to the mugger slitting her throat and sending her to Remnant, before being forced to watch her new mother die in front of her, her life wasn't something she'd call lucky. Sure, her semblance was a lucky break, but even that had a major drawback.

But, surely she could make it the few hundred steps between the landing pad and the Ballroom without, say, a giant explosion, courtesy of her adoptive half-sister, blasting a large area around her and the girl who was just yelling at her.

Crystal would have also been in the blast, and likely suffered a pretty nasty injury on account of her weak defensive aura, but her reflexes were fast enough to see Ruby about to sneeze, and she had dropped into her shadows a good half-second before the dust ignited.

She could have attempted to stop Ruby from sneezing at all, but putting her arm directly into the cloud of dust the white girl absently waved into the air and risking Ruby setting it off...Even Crystal knew that was just asking for her arm to get blown off.

Sure, the two girls stood there through the explosion only looking a little singed, but they had a proper set of auras, not...whatever Crystal had. And while she felt a brief spike of envy at the two girls, being able to stand in what was a big enough explosion to cripple or even kill her, and only have minor cosmetic damage to show for it, Crystal quickly clamped down on the feeling, by reminding herself of how much better her semblance was than...whatever the two girls had. Seriously. No matter how many times she said it, her semblance was amazing.

And, saying as much in her head, it weirded Crystal out just how easily she could get distracted, as a Black-Clad girl nearby interrupted the two girls and, if the huff and indignant walk were any indication, just gave an absolute zinger of an insult to the white girl.

Crystal would have done so herself if given the time, and the willpower, and the sheer desire to do so, but it seemed her sister wasn't being too harshly berated, so she could let it slide without pouring more salt on the wound. Though she wasn't above tripping the girl up with a little help from her shadows, if the opportunity presented itself.

What did kind of annoy Crystal though was when the girl in black proceeded to vanish like a damn ninja, leaving Ruby stood there looking more than a little sad at being abandoned. Closing her eyes, she pulled herself from her shadows to give Ruby a hand...only to smash headfirst into something. From the clacking sound, the oof, and the subsequent sound of metal hitting the floor with another oomph, that something was probably another hunter-in-training.

But, those thoughts had to wait, as Crystal silently cursed out her luck as she clutched the top of her head, going through every curse word she knew to describe the gods and all the depraved things she wanted to do to them for putting her in that position.

With a final swear which would have definitely changed Ruby's perspective on her, Crystal turned to look at the person she hit, mentally running through for any indication she recognized him from anywhere. She'd already seen Pyrrha 'fucking' Nikos, so she was kind of hoping that she at least had an icebreaker with the girl if that were the case. But no, blue eyes and blonde, not her.

And the fact he was a guy...yeah.

"Crystal? A..are you okay?" The high-pitched voice of her adoptive sister drew her out of her observation of the dazed boy, and she shrugged, leaning forward and grabbing the boy by his forearm, yanking him up into a standing position and smiling.

"Wu-AH!" The noise the boy made being lifted was definitely worth the pain of being smashed on the head by his chin, though the sight of blood coming from his mouth was a little odd. Crystal leaned in closely to inspect, ignoring the boys stammered protests, and saw it was definitely blood, and it looked as though he'd bitten his tongue or something.

Quirking her mouth to the side, she whipped out her scroll, tapping out a quick message for the boy, who read it with a confused look on his face, looking to Ruby for guidance. "Oh, uh, she's mute." Was the short answer Ruby gave him, and the boy just nodded slowly.

"Right...so, uh, yeah no, I don't have a uh...a weak aura. What's that?" The boy asked nervously, and Crystal just rolled her eyes, tapping out on her scroll again. "So, do you just not talk, or is it a medical thing, or..." The boy trailed off when, barely missing a beat, Crystal took one hand from her scroll, the other still typing whilst holding it, to yank down her scarf, showing him the scar whilst simultaneously putting her hand back on her scroll, typing away as if she hadn't done anything. "Oh."

Flicking her eyes up for a moment to look at the boy, Crystal could already tell he was probably not someone who had actually seen a lot of live-combat, if the green on his face was any indication. He'd probably only ever killed Grimm in a controlled environment, a far cry from her own 'training', and hadn't seen a proper injury other than little cuts in a kitchen, nor sustained any. Waving her hand at Ruby, Crystal kept typing and led the boy to begin talking with Ruby while she continued tapping at her scroll.

She could have listened in, but to be honest, the pair would probably only talk about things she could care less about. Finally done, Crystal tapped on the boy's shoulder, as at some point the pair had turned away from her, tossing her scroll in the air and watching him fumble to catch it with a smirk. Clearly he was a rather rudimentary swordsman, he didn't have very good coordination, so he would probably end up hiding behind his shield and being a tank, especially with that physical armour.

Huh. That sounded like a good idea. To make up for her weakness in aura, maybe she could get some kevlar or something. Wearing a heavy chestpiece like that guy was off the table, she liked her manoeuvrability thank you very much, but some lightweight armour would be handy against a stray claw or bullet breaking through her aura and maiming her.

"Oh, okay, cool." Was the boy's enthusiastic response to her explanation of what a weak aura was. It was clear he had more questions and didn't know how to ask them, or perhaps didn't want to, but Crystal didn't care, taking her scroll back and, after waving at Ruby, who eagerly waved back, dropped into her shadows, but rather than just darting off to another shadow immediately, instead she watched closely as the boy completely freaked out, pointing at where she was and the shadow she dropped into, gesturing wildly and talking a mile a minute at Ruby.

It was always funny seeing people reacting to her Semblance. Because hers was so unique, it was easy to freak people out by seemingly being absorbed by the darkness around her feet. Having seen a sign that pointed towards the Ballroom, Crystal quickly shadow-hopped her way over, seeing a few faces she recognized from the airship.

And, as much as she may deny it to anybody who asked, she totally spent more than a few seconds in the shadow of THE Pyrrha Nikos. Literally being in the shadow of the seemingly Godlike Greek girl was great, even if she would vehemently deny ever doing it. She was two things for Crystal. Firstly was the fact she was a fucking badass. Seriously, the girl was a legend.

But, more importantly to Crystal, the girl seemed to be, at least somewhat, tied to Greek mythology, making her the clearest link to her home that she'd found on Remnant. Two forms of her weapon were Greek, a Xiphos and Javelin, and that said nothing about her damn shield, it was goddamn spartan. Her name was Greek as well, or at least Crystal thought it was. She couldn't figure out what Pyrrha was meant for, but Nikos literally meant Victor of the People. If that didn't sum up Pyrrha Nikos in a nutshell, Crystal would eat Criss-Cross.

Yeah, she named her revolvers Criss-Cross, whatever.

* * *

That...was not a sight Crystal ever thought she'd see, and she damn well hoped Ruby didn't come near that tree...and that she wasn't too attached to the guy they'd spoken to for like five minutes.

The initiation started off well. The instant Ozpin began launching her panel, she flipped him off whilst disappearing, not missing the smirk that appeared on his lips even as he tried to hide it behind his mug. It was nice to know the guy had a sense of humor and would probably overlook her blatant disrespect, considering it was just a bit of friendly middle-fingering. From there, it would be pretty trivial to just shadow hop to the Temple, but she wanted to watch and see who she'd want on her team, so she went hunting.

When she appeared from the shadows in the area she saw the blonde that Ruby had chatted with fly off to, she spent a few minutes searching before she saw the glinting of metal, and looked up at the tree. Seeing the corpse hanging from the tree, his neck snapped from the sudden whiplash being stuck to a tree gave him, was definitely not what she thought she'd find. It was a shame that the one boy her adoptive sister made friends with so far ended up dead, but hey, that's life...or death, rather.

With a silent sigh, Crystal popped up to a branch close to the boy, and with as much care as she could muster, which wasn't much, yanked out the javelin which caught his hoodie, dropping into her shadows again to catch the corpse before it hit the ground.

As soon as the body was on the floor and thus, not in any immediate danger of desecration, Crystal took a step back, then two, then, as loudly as her damn throat would let her, which was silently, gave out a squeal of excitement as she caressed Milo, the spear...javelin...well actually it's a dory, but who cares, of Pyrrha Nikos. Sure, it was probably pretty weird to look at, seeing her stood near a corpse caressing the weapon which caused his death, but Crystal couldn't find it in her to care, too wrapped up in rubbing her hands up and down the weapon.

A gasp quickly drew her attention, and Crystal spun around to see Pyrrha Nikos looking at the corpse in fear...or grief...maybe a little bit of both, she wasn't quite sure. Darting over to her side, she quickly grabbed the girls attention, thrusting the weapon into her hands, making sure to give her a good long bit of eye contact, before smiling at her, pulling out her scroll.

To say her actions confused Pyrrha was an understatement. She entered the clearing to see a corpse on the ground, and a girl prancing about and hugging her weapon like it was a teddy bear. Her first thought was that the girl had actually killed Jaune, but she immediately pushed that thought from her head. There was no blood, not on the corpse, on the girl, or on her weapon. And the boy should have survived the impact easily with his aura, even if it may have been slightly uncomfortable to suddenly get choked by his own hoodie.

With a frown as she looked at the dead boy, Pyrrha set her shoulders, knowing that the boy would definitely want her to go on, not being dragged down into depression by his untimely demise.

It seemed the girl shared this sentiment, if her happy skipping around the clearing was any indication. Clearing her throat again, Pyrrha drew her attention, waving at her. "Hello!" She chirped cheerfully, and the girl waved back excitedly, one hand still tapping at her scroll. "So, I guess this makes us partners then?" Pyrrha asked, casting a glance at the corpse of the boy she intended as her partner. The girl in front of her seemed nice enough, but Jaune seemed like the best option, like an unpolished gemstone, just waiting for her to work on him.

Crystal, meanwhile, was happily typing out a quick explanation of herself on her scroll, a smile firmly on her face. It was perfect. She had arguably the strongest of all the initiates as her teammate, and the fact that she already knew about that initiate was great as well. As she put the last letters on her little biography, she fell into her shadows and popped up beside Pyrrha, throwing her scroll in the air and watching the normally composed girl stumble a bit as she tried to catch the scroll, clamping down on the surprise that reared up when Crystal appeared beside her.

Huh, even absurdly well-trained huntsman-in-training like Pyrrha would startle, good to know. Crystal never had the chance to fight against any particularly well-trained hunters, Oscuro Academy wasn't really known for its excellent graduates. So to see that her ability managed to startle even people like Pyrrha, well, let's just say Crystal felt more than a little pride in her abilities.

Watching the redhead reading through her scroll, Crystal absentmindedly played with the ends of her scarf, waiting for the inevitable question. Whenever she told people about herself, they'd always ask about it. Not that she minded, but hearing the same damn words over and over was annoying.

"So, do you just use revolvers?" That...wasn't quite what she was expecting. Most people asked her about why she couldn't speak, and it was annoying showing her scar off to so many people. She wasn't shy about it or anything, she just didn't like all the follow-up questions. Apparently Pyrrha wasn't all that interested, which was a nice change of pace.

With a nod, Crystal hooked her fingers into the trigger guards of her revolvers, drawing them out with a spin and grasping the handles, subtly thumbing the buttons to change her weapons form. She could also do it by flaring her aura into her hands, which was how hunters changed their weapon forms without actually doing anything, but it was easier to just push the button.

Letting the blades slide out swiftly, Crystal used the rapidly disappearing trigger-guards to flick the blades into the air, grabbing them both in reverse grips and bowing towards the girl, her blades held behind her. A little more flair than her normal self, but she felt she could show off just a little in front of Pyrrha. Holding the position for a second, she then thumbed the buttons again, twirling the blades in hand and letting the revolver grips form in her hands, spinning them once for good measure before holstering them.

She would never admit, and would ruthlessly threaten anyone who mentioned it, that she blushed heavily when Pyrrha Nikos, that Pyrrha Nikos, actually gave her applause for her little show. With a sheepish smile, she took another bow, before straightening up and pointing into the forest. After a few moments of confusion, the champion girl picked up on what she was saying, smiling softly. "Yeah, we should get moving."

With a final glance back at the dead boy who would have been her partner if he actually survived impact, Crystal could safely say she didn't really feel much remorse for losing such a...unique partner.

Hey, it got her on a team with Pyrrha Nikos, that was worth it in her opinion.

* * *

"Crystal!"

The cheerful chirp from Ruby drew the two girl's attention, and less than a second later, in a burst of petals, Ruby latched onto Crystal like a limpet. "Oh, do you two know each other?" Pyrrha called out from her side, and Crystal turned to give her a disbelieving look. "What?" Crystal just gestured at Ruby, who was still holding onto her, as if to say 'Does this look like two people who don't know each other?', whilst smirking as the girl slowly clued in, and at least had the decency to look sheepish at her obvious obliviousness. "Ahh, yes, I guess it'd be quite strange if she didn't know you..."

Say what you will about Pyrrha's combat abilities, the media really under-sold the social ineptitude of the champion girl she had as a partner. Like, seriously, the girl was about as perceptive as a brick.

"You dolt, get back here." The prissy voice of the girl Ruby exploded called out, and Crystal inwardly sighed in exasperation, extracting herself from Ruby's arms and frowning at the girl who, still clad in white, stomped over. It was quite amusing to see such a short-stack of a girl with a pretty mean temper and a nasty glare...for a kitten, trying to cow her.

Matching the glare easily, Crystal took a moment to glance over the newcomer, taking in her appearance. She still had that rapier at her side, and it looked like it probably used dust or something. Though the girl did arrive with a pile of dust crates, so it was likely, but it didn't matter much.

With a shrug, Crystal looked over at the ruins of the temple they were meant to get their relics from, and with a wave to Yang, who was nearby, dropped into her shadows to go and collect one of the chess pieces. After only a moment's deliberation (And seeing that the Knight's were already taken), she decided to take a Rook piece. It didn't really match her skillset, as a Rook is a bastion, a stalwart wall against the enemy. A Knight would be far apter considering her skill-set, but it didn't matter really. With little fanfare Crystal appeared back at Pyrrha's side, tossing the piece up in the air and snatching it, then promptly shoving it into a pouch for safe-keeping, before turning to Pyrrha with a small smile as she pointed back the way they came.

"Hmm? Well, we may as well start making our way back to the cliffs I suppose." Pyrrha said casually, and Crystal nodded before turning to Ruby and raising an eyebrow.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" The girl quickly asked, pulling a tiny mirror out of somewhere and looking at herself hurriedly. With a soft facepalm, Crystal pulled on Pyrrha's arm and waved her hand at Ruby. When Pyrrha gave her an equally confused look, Crystal had to resist the urge to just give up and drag Pyrrha through the forest, leaving the others behind. In the end, she just decided to jab Ruby's arm and point at the cliffs. "Ooooh, right, yeah we should probably make our way back..." She muttered, and, without any warning, suddenly twirled and burst away to her sister using her semblance.

'Wow, rude.' Crystal thought to herself, frowning at the slowly disintegrating petals that dotted the air around her. 'Though quite a pretty semblance, the petals would be a nasty slipping hazard when running at her speed, if she ever had to go over an area her petals were in I'd expect her to slip quite a bit...Hmm, maybe she has practice?' Crystal idly pondered the logistics and logic behind Ruby's semblance, humming an old song to herself. Unbeknownst to her, Pyrrha was watching her closely, listening closely to the girl beside her as she hummed softly, seemingly unaware of her own actions.

It only took a few dozen seconds for Ruby to gather up the assorted students around the clearing, including a pair who had arrived un-noticed somehow, and according to Pyrrha when she nudged her and pointing at them questioningly, the girl with the rotary grenade launcher arrived on the literal back of an Ursa. Definitely not the transportation Crystal would recommend, but she couldn't really say much about that, considering she'd taken rides on Grimm before. Granted, it was only for a few seconds and always involved her swords finding their way to the brains and organs of the Grimm at the end of the journey.

When the group finally assembled, Crystal, with a quick wave, started walking back towards the cliff, her plan quite simple. With 8 people around, it'd be hard for Grimm to just over-run them using numbers, and there'd be more people keeping an eye out, so it wasn't likely any Grimm would be sneaky enough to...

A large black feather fell in front of her face, and Crystal looked at it for a moment frowning before looking up and trying her best not to try and yell out her frustrations. Instead, she settled for mentally saying a single word at the sight of the giant nevermore currently rearing its wings back for an attack.

'Fuck.'

As the feathers spewed forth from its wings like bullets, Crystal was already in motion, running through plans and noting with happiness that all 7 of the other hunters-in-training were matching her erratic movements, avoiding each projectile swiftly. Pyrrha was sticking close by and firing off shots with every opening she got between evasions, and the sounds of gunfire from elsewhere clued Crystal into the fact that everyone capable of engaging the bird were doing so. Not that the rounds were doing much. Her own revolvers would do nothing, and so she didn't bother wasting the ammo. If she could, she'd tell the others they might as well cease fire and conserve ammo, but alas, she couldn't.

Each plan that drifted through her mind just fell flat. Partially because she wasn't made for thinking tactically, and partially because she had no damn clue of anybody's capabilities. She knew some of Ruby's and Pyrrha's, but beyond that, she had no clues aside from their weaponry. Ruby's sister and the girl who rode an Ursa were clearly really strong powerhouses, the black-dressed girl who insulted the white-dressed one and the boy who came in with the Ursa-rider were clearly more like skirmishers, the white girl seemed like a dust support, Ruby was a speed demon, Pyrrha was a jack-of-all-trades with an emphasis for head-on combat, and Crystal herself was a skirmisher and range support.

Looking up at the nevermore as it circled around for another attack run, Crystal frowned. She just...couldn't think of any good ways to incorporate their strengths into a cohesive attack strategy. The best she'd come up with so far was for all the ranged fighters to just keep shooting at it till it got angry and came down, then atta-...oh.

A red blob came flying up from the ground nearby and smashed into the neck of the nevermore, before dragging it up the cliffside and decapitating it, with help from a bunch of white glyphs. Guess one of the other girls figured something out. Saved her having to try and write out a plan on a scroll for everyone, then trying to get them to read it.

Honestly, the whole not being able to talk thing was such a hindrance.

* * *

"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of-"

Crystal tuned out Ozpin for about the millionth time. She was worried she'd miss his announcement and look like an idiot hurrying out, but, considering it, Pyrrha would probably just pull her out with her, so there wasn't any-. Pyrrha began dragging on her shoulder, and Crystal cursed her timing as she started listening to Ozpin drone on again as the four of them trooped out onto the stage.

"-stal Sallow, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the White Rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as...Team Pelican, lead by Pyrrha Nikos."

'Pelican...huh. Wonder how he got that abbreviation...' Crystal thought over the ordering of her team, while Nora hugged her friend, who just looked so done with the whole thing, and Pyrrha looked like the world had just added another heap of responsibility on her shoulders. Crystal felt kinda bad for the girl, since she was already known as a champion, and now had to lead her team to victory. She'd offer to take the role herself, but between the responsibilities that a leader had to deal with...and the fact she couldn't yell out orders...yeah that was just asking for failure. Too bad she didn't get like...a telepathy semblance, that'd be handy...

Yeah, she wasn't even fooling herself thinking like that. She loved her shadowy semblance far too much. Another tug on her shoulders brought her from her thinking, to see the small smile on Pyrrha's face as she pulled Crystal from the stage, and the other two members of their team trailed behind, clearing the stage. "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao-Long. Th-"

Tuning out the boring speech again, Crystal instead smirked at herself. 'So, the white-girl was a Schnee...cool.' She thought casually to herself, folding her fingers together behind her head as the team walked away from the stage and attempted to find a place to stand for the rest of the speech. Personally, Crystal wanted to just go to their new dorm and get some sleep, but considering all students weren't allowed to actually leave the hall until the speech was done, Crystal had to suffice to just lean against a wall and watch.

"Now, I understand some of you maybe have noticed that we are missing one initiate. I understand some of you may have been treating this as a game, and while I do not wish for this, I hope that this informs you that the life of a huntsman is not a fairytale. Yesterday morning, Jaune Arc tragically lost his life during the opening stages of the initiation." The headmaster paused whilst murmuring erupted in the room, waiting a few moments before raising his hand for silence.

"I won't go into details, but suffice to say he was unprepared for the reality of our world and lost his life as a result. I tell you this in the hopes you will take this as a lesson, will motivate you to study harder, and strive to survive where he tragically fell." Ozpin solemnly looked over the students arrayed, frowning when he looked upon the depressed visage of Pyrrha and the strangely balanced nonchalance of her partner. The champion girl was not, and probably will never, be a truly capable leader, but she was the best for that team. Between one being unable to speak, one far too headstrong and hyper, and one far too passive, she was simply the best fit for a leader, even if she was far more suited for a soldier role.

With that, the Headmaster dismissed the students, and he chuckled at the sight of the Faunus girl in the back stretching and hopping about excitedly, though he frowned when he saw her gesturing about. He didn't get a chance to ask about why she was mute, or what caused the wound on her throat, and he feared the answer would not be very pleasant. Perhaps Salem's minions had gotten to the girl already and failed to eliminate her. Mahpahs that was why she was so reluctant to talk about her family when he asked.

Unknowing of Ozpin's thoughts, Crystal twisted her body, hearing and feeling as her back gave a few luxurious pops, and looked at Pyrrha who was eyeing her with an amused face. "Shall we?" She said, waving at the door and receiving an enthusiastic nod, and she watched with a smile as the girl practically skipped out of the hall, followed closely by an equally enthused Nora, who was chirping on happily about pancakes and syrup, dragging Ren along with her and talking his ear off. With a shrug and a serene smile, she followed them out of the hall.

'Well, at least my team isn't boring.' She thought idly to herself.

* * *

**_Since Fire is a lazy-butt who doesn't ever do this-_**

**Hey, I'm totally capable of doing this on my own, so hush.**

_**Anyways, with Fire's...tentative permission**_** (Yeah, totally)****,**_** allow me to present a quantifiable analysis to Crystal Sallow's Semblance and weaponry:**_

**Semblance: Shadow-stepper**

**Description: Shadow-stepper allows Crystal to drop downwards into the floor. It is remarkably easier to do so in darkness, but she can do it even in Sunlight, it is just far more difficult. The same rules apply for her emergence. She appears from the ground she targetted, and while not necessary, the darker the area, the easier it is for her to emerge.**

**So far, Crystal has not found a maximum range on her abilities. As long as she has her feet on something solid, and has at least an inkling of aura, she can drop into the shadows and travel to any location she can picture in her mind, as long as either she had visited it before, or had access to detailed imagery of the area. She has to be able to picture it in her mind clearly, and the easiest way for her to do that is visiting it directly and looking around, which is why she can transport herself around in line of sight incredibly easily.**

**The major limitation to her Semblance is it seems to make her aura significantly less dense, and as such suffers injuries despite having an active aura. Said injuries are usually not debilitating, but can still be a hindrance in combat. She also cannot bring people with her. These two drawbacks are what make her balanced compared to Raven's semblance, and also why she hasn't been picked up for special training by Ozpin. If she had a semblance like Raven's, I can imagine Ozpin would be quite eager to use her as a glorified transportation service, though she'd make an excellent messenger.**

**Aircraft are somewhat more complicated for Crystal, she can disappear into her shadows just fine when aboard them, and appear in vehicles that are stationary. However, if a vehicle moves and she doesn't have direct line of sight of the part of the vehicle she wants to emerge from, she will simply appear in the place the vehicle was when it was last stationary, rather than its new location. If that location is blocked by a physical object, her teleportation is pushed to the nearest available space.**

**Weapon: Criss-Cross**

**Description: Criss-Cross are a pair of high-powered revolvers with**** sword mechashift functionality. Due to only having a single alternate form, her revolvers are capable of incredibly high-speed mechashifting, changing between sword and revolver within half a second.**

**Crystal uses this ability to trick and confuse opponents. If her sword is blocked, she can change it to a revolver and fire, then change it back before the opponent can capitalize on her lost weapon. Because she has two, she can even use one to block whilst changing the other to a gun and fire it whilst using the blade to press her attack.**

**Her revolvers are powerful enough to penetrate the forehead plating of a Beowolf, but aren't capable of penetrating the chitin of a Deathstalker without successive shots in the same location.**

**The main drawback to her weapons are in the low cylinder capacity, only fitting 5 shots each, and the shortness of the swords. She keeps her blades short because the longer they are, the more time it takes to shift the forms, leading to a short sword approach. She has a case filled with a few different revolver-blades of varying lengths which she occasionally uses, but mainly sticks with the short-sword length.**


End file.
